Cleveland County students say hello to classrooms, bye to summer

The hallways and classrooms at Cleveland County Schools were once again filled with the noise and bustle of students Wednesday as kids, parents and teachers said goodbye to summer break and welcomed in the new school year.

“We had a great morning with parents walking students into school and our hallways full,” said Jefferson Elementary Principal Christopher Dow. “It's always good to see and hear students in the hall again after a summer of quiet in the building.”

He said just over 400 students are enrolled this year, and he’s looking forward to connecting with both staff and families and working together.

Renee Woody, Title 1 teacher and family engagement, said they welcomed 291 Grover Wolves to campus Wednesday.

"Classrooms were filled with smiles as staff greeted students in the doorway; many giving high fives, fist bumps, and hugs," Woody said. "The first day of school is always filled with back to school jitters, but our students quickly felt back at home as classrooms began community building lessons."

She said staff are looking forward to welcoming parents and students for a Title 1 Parent and Family Event on Sept. 11 at 5 p.m. Woody said the theme of the event is: Your Future is Bright: The Day of a Grover Student.

"At Grover School, we are committed to our mission of nurturing and teaching all children so they may become independent, life-long learners," she said. "We are certain the 2023-2024 school year will be one of excellence and we look forward to the growth our students will experience."

According to Cleveland County Schools Human Resources, just under 1,000 teachers began the year along with 14,346 students.

While some school districts struggle with teacher vacancies, that isn’t the case in Cleveland County.

“In terms of vacancies, we currently have one classroom teacher vacancy,” said Superintendent Stephen Fisher. “In addition, the district does have a few specialized certified vacancies as well as a few classified vacancies.”

He said overall, the school system feels positive about their current staffing situation heading into the school year.

“We attribute this to the excellent work that has been done by our school level administrators as well as our Human Resources Department,” Fisher said. “Cleveland County Schools continues to be a great place to work and focuses on creating positive team culture.”

He said new teachers were part of ongoing training prior to the start of school, and all new teachers met with school and district leaders.

Wednesday, both Fisher and Greg Shull, school spokesperson, made a tour of each school in the county, starting with Kings Mountain High and circling back to Grover Elementary as the last stop.

Shull said they had a lot of good feedback, particularly regarding safety and the new random wanding at high schools, and were able to talk to students and staff all around the county. He said they like to ask the Kindergarten teachers how many kids cry on the first day and this year there were none.

"It was a pleasant beginning," he said.

Kings Mountain welcomed its largest incoming freshman group of students and like other area high schools, was focused on safety.

“We’re excited about starting a new school year,” said Dustin Morehead, principal of Kings Mountain High School. “We’ve got almost 1,400 students. It’s the largest incoming freshman class, over 400 of them, that we have ever had at our school.”

Last year, Kings Mountain High piloted new security procedures and was the first to conduct wanding metal detectors as well as a trial season with new open gate metal detectors.

“We got our feet wet last semester,” Morehead said. “We had other schools come out and observe.”

The open gate system metal detectors will be implemented over the next few weeks at all four high schools and in the meantime, staff are conducting random metal detector wanding and backpack checks on students as they enter the building.

Morehead said they are excited about continuing that work to make the campus as secure and safe as possible for both students and staff.

He said the wanding was in place Wednesday and, although there’s always a few bumps in the road to work out, it went well.

“At the end of the day, the most important thing is that we provide a safe environment for learning to happen,” Morehead said.

He said the metal detectors will be in place in the next four to six weeks which will help get students through security faster than individual wanding.

“We have a great staff of caring adults and wonderful students and that’s what makes Kings Mountain a special place,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Cleveland County students back in class